Poll: Most Young Palestinians Support Terror Stabbings, Oppose Cooperation With Israelis

JAFFA, Israel – An overwhelming majority of young Palestinians reject cooperating with Israelis even if they share their neighbor’s vision on the solution to the conflict, a new poll has found.

According to the poll, which was published on Monday by the Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, 64.3 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said they would not cooperate with Israelis even if they see eye to eye, as opposed to 27.1 percent who said they would. The poll, based on in-person interviews, sampled 1000 young Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip between April 13 and 19.

Asked which political current they would vote for – secular or Islamist – 32.7 percent said they would vote for the former while 42.4 percent opted for the latter.

Only half of the people surveyed – 50.1 percent – said the Islamic State harms the Palestinian cause, as opposed to 38 percent who said it has no effect and a mere 2.2 percent who said it did.

Almost a half (49.8 percent) said they oppose mixed-gender education, as opposed to 13 percent who said they support it up until the end of high school. 35.1 percent said they support it up until the end of elementary school.

Despite these rather conservative trends, 69 percent said they oppose polygamy, while 27.2 percent supported it.

The poll revealed the extent of the crisis of leadership among the Palestinians. Only 16 percent said President Mahmoud Abbas was the political figure they trusted the most, while a mere 13 percent said it was former Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. A third of the people surveyed said they trusted no-one.

There were differences in opinion between Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

While 47.4 percent of youths in the West Bank oppose stabbing attacks, 78.6 percent of Gaza youths supporte them, according to the poll. In addition, 66.6 percent of Palestinian youth in Gaza believe the current wave of violence serves the Palestinian cause, while only 40.9 percent in the West Bank do.

As for the effectiveness of the wave of violence, 29.3 percent said that it will end when its goals are achieved, while 29.2 percent don’t think it ever will.

More than a half (51.3 percent) of Palestinians surveyed think that the uprising contributes to the Palestinian cause while 21.3 percent think it doesn’t.